| Economic and Environmental Analysis of Cumene Production in Egypt: Process simulation and Improvement |
| Paper ID : 1042-ICEE (R1) |
| Authors: |
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Esraa Khaled1, Mamdouh Gadalla1, Mohamed Amin1, Fatma Ashour2, Dina Kamel *1 1Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, British University in Egypt, Cairo, Egypt 2Chemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt |
| Abstract: |
| Isopropyl benzene or cumene production is one of the large-scale productions in the world, one of the five largest petrochemical processes- ethylbenzene, benzene, propylene, cumene and ethylene. Due to the large consumption and importance, the production process needs to be studied, optimized and developed to reduce the capital and operational cost of the plant. With the advent of updated simulating software and computers, it is possible to design and optimize the process. Proper design can significantly reduce production cost. The main objective of this paper is to design and simulate the cumene production process using ASPEN software, and to optimize the existing heat exchanger network. With the aim of optimizing the process for minimization of energy requirement, lowering total operating cost with the minimum structural modifications, and performing an economic analysis on current and proposed designs. Analyzing the current process design using pinch analysis principals provided insights for potential energy savings up to 85% of current energy consumption. The main objective of this paper is to optimize the current cumene production process used globally. Then perform an economic analysis and explore the possibility of implementing the most economical process in Egypt. Accordingly, two revamping designs for the HEN were proposed saving energy consumption by 20 to 40% without significant structural modifications to existing design. Although the modifications were significant still the energy targets were not reached, so we developed a new design of HEN to reach an energy saving of 85 % and this is valid for the new built plants as we don’t have in Egypt. Another modification is also presented through the designed of a new HEN using Pinch rules saving about 85%. |
| Keywords: |
| Cumene, Energy, Energy Integration, Heat Exchanger Network, Pinch Technology, Aspen HYSYS, Energy Analyzer. |
| Status : Paper Accepted |
